Standard Paper-Bag Cookery

Coquilles of Lobster. — Cook two tablespoonfuls of finely chopped onion in a tablespoonful butter for fifteen minutes. Have ready a cream sauce made by melting together over the fire a tablespoonful each of butter and flour, then thinning with a cupful of white stock that has been cooked with a small bouquet of sweet herbs. Salt and pepper to taste, and if you like add half a cupful chopped mushrooms and their liquor. Add to the lightly browned onions two cupfuls finely cut lobster meat, a tablespoonful minced parsley, one cupful of the made sauce and salt and paprika. Cook together ten minutes, then put the mixture into the shells, pour a little of the sauce over each, sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs, bag, and bake about ten minutes or until they are browned. Lobster in Shells. — Cut the meat from two cans of lobster into small pieces. Sprinkle a few bread crumbs and a little salt and pepper over it. Then put in shells. On each shell put a good sized lump of butter, two teaspoonfuls of wine, some more salt and pepper and some more bread crumbs. Put prepared shells in a paper bag, put in a hot oven and cook ten minutes. Mussels au Gratin. — Remove and clean the mussels, straining all the liquor thoroughly. Then make this sauce : Fry two tablespoonfuls of chopped onions in butter for a few minutes, but do not let them brown ; add about a teaspoonful of flour, and, while the onions are blending, add the liquor of the mussels, stirring it in slowly. Cook this mixture for a few minutes; then add a tablespoonful of vinegar, the same quantity of chopped parsley and pepper and salt to taste. Butter a shallow earthen or wooden baking dish; in the bottom spread a layer of the sauce, lay the mussels on top of it and cover them with the balance of the sauce. Over all this spread a thin coating of breadcrumbs; butter and bake in bag until they have browned. Serve in the same dish in which they were baked. Boxed Oysters (Virginia Style). — Take crusty rolls cut off the top and scoop out the hearts leaving them each like a box. Fill the space with oysters, seasoning with salt, pepper and butter and sprinkling over them some of the crumb of the roll that you have removed. Put bits of butter on top, then replace the cover. Set the rolls in the buttered bag and pour the strained oyster liquor over them. Put into a hot oven and bake for fifteen minutes. Serve hot. Lemon juice or a little mace is sometimes used for seasoning the oysters. Spindled Oysters and Bacon. — For two dozen large oysters have two dozen thin slices bacon, and a half dozen slices crisp toast. Have ready a half dozen slender steel skewers. Fill these skewers with alternate slices of bacon and oysters, running the skewer crosswise through the eye of the oyster and threading the bacon by one corner, so that each slice blankets an oyster. Do not crowd. Lay the skewers in a buttered bag, and cook in a quick oven ten minutes. Lay each spindle with its contents undisturbed on a slice of toast, pour the drip from the bag over them and serve at once. CHAPTER VII. FISH.